The squarish, red brick building across the street from Dallas’ South Side on Lamar development began life as a coffin shop.

Today, developer Jack Matthews will announce plans to convert the five-story building into a boutique hotel under the Nylo flag.

It will be the third Nylo hotel in Dallas-Fort Worth. And it marks the latest installment in Matthews’ overall effort to breathe new life into an area some had given up for dead.

“People have not focused on what’s south of … [Interstate] 30 in the past 50 years,” said Matthews, whose South Side development is separated from downtown by the cavernous freeway.

“The psychological divide is larger than the physical one. People have been taught since they were little, don’t go south of the 30,” he said. “We’re trying to open up people’s thinking right now.”

The latest lure will be the newest Nylo, part of a small chain of hotels that feature loft-style rooms, with lots of exposed brick and concrete columns.

The hotel, which will join sister properties in Plano and Las Colinas, will have 76 rooms, with custom-made furniture and artwork and music by local artists.

It will have a full-service restaurant and bar on the ground level, but the high point, literally, will be the roof-top bar and pool offering views of downtown Dallas.

One of the most visible icons will be the Omni Dallas Hotel, which is taking shape next to the convention center, less than a mile to the north of the new Nylo. Matthews’ company, Matthews Southwest, also is the developer on that 23-story project.

Michael Mueller, chief executive of Nylo Hotels, sees the convention center as a business generator for both his hotel and the Omni.

“We’re the third closest hotel to the convention center,” he said, including the Aloft downtown. “That’ll produce a lot of room nights. We expect to capture some people who are doing business downtown.”

While Nylo Hotels is technically headquartered in Atlanta, much of the operation is local. There’s only one Nylo outside the D-FW area, in Rhode Island. And Mueller lives here.

As a resident, he said he’s spent time near South Side and he’s aware that some tread in the area with trepidation.

“My perception, as an outsider coming to town, wasn’t as bad as the people I talked to,” he said. “And I think their perceptions were based on something that was dated.

“What Jack has done down there is quite impressive,” Mueller added. “It’s an up and coming area.”

Matthews estimates the hotel project will cost $19 million, including the cost of the land.

Work could begin as early as the spring and could take up to 15 months to complete. That would put the opening date months behind the planned early 2012 opening of the Omni.

Nylo will operate the new hotel and it will be owned by CCH Lamar Partners, an affiliate of Matthews Southwest.

The project is being funded through equity from CCH Partners, tax credits and a federal program that allows foreign nationals to invest in U.S. projects to help secure a green card.

In August, the city’s Landmark Commission recommended approval of a 10-year, 100 percent tax exemption for the old Dallas Coffin Co. building. Over 10 years, that would amount to an estimated $497,330 in forgone tax revenue. The tax break was approved by the Dallas City Council in November.

The complex is across from the Jack Evans Police Headquarters, which was completed in 2003.

Matthews’ company has owned the building since the late 1990s. It was part of an overall 17-acre purchase that included the huge Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog complex. The largest building in the development was converted into 450 apartments, shops and offices that became South Side on Lamar, which is about 85 percent occupied, he said.

“From day one,” Matthews said, he envisioned the coffin building (later a Sears regional office) as the hotel in the development.

He said his company tried “a couple of times” since the purchase to get a hotel up and running. “Early on it was too premature” he said. “Now the time has come for us to get this part done.

“There’s a reason we’re doing it now and not 10 years ago,” he said, noting the 2 million square feet of development in the area over the past 11 years.